Fix Squeaky Floor Under Carpet

Find out how to silence floor squeaks under carpet. Learn how driving a nail into the floor will get rid of the squeak.

LESLIE: Rebecca in South Carolina, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today?

REBECCA: Yes. I would like to know – I live in an apartment and when someone above me walks across the floor, the floor squeaks. I want to know how you – what’s the best thing to do to fix that?

TOM: Do you get along with your neighbor?

REBECCA: Yes.

TOM: OK. Now, is it a carpeted floor[1] above you or is it a hardwood floor?

REBECCA: It’s a carpet floor.

TOM: OK.

REBECCA: Tile, carpet and – every time they walk across it, it squeaks. I mean it’s really aggravating.

TOM: Alright. Well, the tile is hard to deal with; the carpet not so much. Now, there’s two ways to fix a squeaky floor through a carpet. The first thing you need to do is identify where the floor joist is underneath the carpet and you can do that with a stud finder. That will actually identify where the beam is.

And then you drive a nail. You want to use a – you can do this with a finish nail. You want to get a big finish nail, like a number 10 and number 12. You can actually drive it through the carpet at a slight angle, right over the floor joists, and then set it so it sort of pops through the bottom of the carpet. When you first drive it, it’ll look like there’s a dimple in the carpet and you sort of grab the carpet nap and pull it up through the head of the nail and it’ll be invisible.

But if you do that in two or three places around the squeak, that will tighten up the floor in that area.

LESLIE: Mm-hmm. Because what’s happening is the subfloor underneath the carpeting is rubbing against the floor joist, because there’s movement. So if you could secure them together, you’re going to silence that squeak. It’s got to annoy them. Do they complain about it or have you not mentioned it?

REBECCA: Oh, yes, I have. They’ve heard it and they know it’s like that, too.

TOM: Yeah.

REBECCA: The owner of the building just don’t want to do it so I’m trying to figure out what can I do.

LESLIE: Well, this shouldn’t void anybody’s lease. This is an easy fix that you guys can do yourself without even letting the landlord know.

REBECCA: OK, great. Thank you.

TOM: You’re welcome, Rebecca. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.